Fitness Fuel Deception

I have a problem, and I need to rant for a bit. This has been bothering me for a few days, and it continues to bother me every day when I walk into my gym. I go to Goodlife; there are a bunch of great things about the chain, and also some downfalls. Other things I find are just plain ridiculous. 
Goodlife sells protein bars at their front desk, I've known this for a while, but it recently hit me how inappropriate this may be. At the gym closest to my house they recently started selling a new kind of bar. I definitely prefer to bake my own protein snacks, but I realize that sometimes it just isn't possible to bring these along and I'm always on the lookout for new protein bars. Naturally, I had to investigate this one.
The crazy thing is that I never really used to care about the contents of the bar, permitting that it had protein and tasted delicious. Yet again I can look back at younger me and shake my head. 
I'm lactose-intolerant, so one of the criteria for my protein bars is of course that it is dairy-free. When these new bars appeared at the front desk of my gym, I stopped to check them out and to my surprise and delight, noticed that they were lactose-free! Momentarily excited, I turned it over to read the ingredients and my surprise turned to shock. The first ingredient? Sugar. It was brown rice syrup, but it's really just a fancy way of saying SUGAR. 
So why am I so offended by this? It's a GYM. That promotes healthy living and a healthy life. And it is selling protein bars packed with SUGAR! I'm sure that many people come into the gym trusting that they're going to be guided in the right direction, and might see these bars and assume that they're a health food. Protein bars are great and convenient if they have the right ingredients, but most of them unfortunately do not. Am I alone here thinking that health clubs shouldn't be selling foods that could pass as a chocolate bar?

In other news, I'm still searching for a good lactose-free, low-sugar protein bar. Any suggestions?

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins and a Balanced Weekend!

I have a love-hate relationship with Mondays. I hate my alarm going off at 4:20am, but I love it when I'm energized and excited for a week of clean eats, dirty workouts and progress with my body, school and work. It's always nice too when Monday rolls around and I don't feel like garbage because I've consumed too many unhealthy foods over the weekend. Small successes!

This weekend was an excellent balance of work and play. Friday afternoon I went for lunch and shopping with my superstar cousin Julia, which was fantastic and long overdue! Plus extremely motivating because of how hard she is working towards her Olympic goal! Friday night I was on my own since Lee was out, so I took advantage and spent some time prepping snacks for the beach on Saturday, and doing homework. I wasn't the happiest to be doing homework on a Friday, but that's student life I guess! I'm thankful that I did; it is a lot less stress this week now. I was a bit relived when the internet went out due to the storm though - meant I could go to bed :)

Saturday started with a cardio and abs workout for an active rest day, and then off to Bayfield to the beach with Amy! We could have packed a bunch of junk food to eat while we relaxed, but opted for lemon protein muffins (below), veggies, hard boiled eggs, apples and popcorn. We even had an awesome healthy peanut stir fry for dinner before heading out to the bar. 

Sunday was a rest/homework/food prep day. I spent time hanging out with Lee while we both studied, and I got to see the final stage of the tour de france. I almost started crying because I was so happy for Chris Froome! The cyclist in me is begging to go for a ride - also long overdue!

My weekend was a perfect combination of relaxing and productive, with moderately clean eating and even some gym time! How was your weekend?

Onto the recipe...

Lemon Poppyseed Protein Muffins!
Adapted from the Gracious Pantry. I prefer to make muffins instead of loafs or breads - the pre-portioned sizes are perfect!


¾ cup oat flour 
¾ cup vanilla whey protein powder ½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp poppy seeds
8 packets of True Lemon (OR 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1 tbsp + 2 tsp lemon zest)
 ½ cup egg whites
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp LF cottage cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine first 4 ingredients in one bowl and all remaining ingredients in another.
Pour the bowl of wet ingredients into the dry bowl and stir until smooth.
Preheat oven to 350, line muffin tins with parchment paper muffin cups, and divide batter into 12 muffins! Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Enjoy!!

My Life.. Lately

Once again I have ignored my blog for a while. What can I say? Life is BUSY. But balanced, perhaps? This is what I've been up to lately...

Friday after class I drove up to Wasaga Beach to FINALLY spend some time at the cottage with Lee and his family. This was my view for the weekend:

The weekend was even better because I got to spend the whole weekend getting kisses and winks from this little man!

I was more prepared than my last cottage weekend for this one, luckily. I brought up smoothies and pancake batter - which I think I've perfected now. Sunday Lee and I left the cottage to head to Toronto to see Train. It was about a million degrees outside, but it was nice once the sun went down.

The best thing about sitting on the lawn at the Molson Amphitheatre is the view. 

We both took Monday off, which was a great call by Lee. It let us get organized, since we didn't get home until after midnight on Sunday. Lee cleaned while I was at the gym, and cleaned more while I was cooking. What a keeper. I also spent some time hanging out by the pool at his parent's place doing homework. Unfortunately with being gone all weekend I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but I did what I could. I needed the weekend away to relax and not worry about school or work, and it definitely helped! 
Tuesday was back to the grind at school, and ended up being a long day with staying on campus for a conference call for work, and then working late Tuesday night to get caught up. 
I have a confession too - I skipped the gym Wednesday. For those who know me, this is VERY unlike me. I woke up, got out of bed, looked in the mirror and went right back to bed. I could tell it wasn't going to happen. This morning I MADE myself go. I could have gone back to bed, but I need my routine back, which means up at 4:30 and working out by 6:00am. I'm thankful I went! New PB on preacher curls today!

I have some new recipes to post, which I'll try to do in the next couple days, stay tuned :)

Just be YOUR Best

I had a moment today when I realized that people (women in particular), probably never grow out of comparing themselves to others. I struggled with self-image for a long time, and I sometimes still do. I'll see other women at the gym and be envious of their arms or their petite figure - whatever it may be. Sometimes it's in a different way - someone will run by me, or I'll see them lifting heavier than I can and get frustrated with myself. But here's the thing... 

I'M NOT THEM. 

THEY'RE NOT ME. 

End of story. People are born a certain way. With certain body types, certain muscle cells, and to an extent (I believe), a certain inclination to workout (or not) in one way or another. It takes some time, but when you get there, it is an amazing ability to be able to use these people as motivation instead of deflation. 

I have my own way of doing things - and even that goes through phases. I'm a runner, a cyclist, a triathlete, and lately all I want to do is move heavy weights fast and often. One of my favourite triathlon quotes is :

Why be great at one sport when you can be mediocre at three?

This is applicable not only to my triathlons, but to everything. I love the fact that one day I can do an insane lifting workout, and the next day run 10k like it's nothing. I may not lift the heaviest weights, or run the fastest, but it's what I DO. Who knows how the person lifting heavier than you would fair in a run, or how the runner would fair in a weight room? Even if they rock at both, use it to push yourself further. I truly believe that you are your only competition. 

I compete against myself. EVERY. DAY. I push my limits, and I fight against the voice in my head telling to give up. Today, I won. I had my highest burn yet, and it was an amazing feeling of accomplishment.

Don't compete against the person at the gym. Compete against who you were yesterday. And LOVE every minute of everything you're doing. Except burpees. No one likes burpees. 

A Quick Update!

I've been slacking, I know. I guess when I'm trying to balance so much all at once, updating my blog does not take priority. Here's an update from the last week:

•  School is BUSY. This isn't an undergrad that you show up to class sometimes and never read anything. I have an assignment and readings to do for every class, and it's not a small amount of work.
• My beautiful cousin Krista got married on Saturday night - great night, lots of celebrating and toasts.
• Thanks to all of Krista's toasts, Sunday was a struggle. I had a ton of homework to do, plus prepping for the week, and we didn't get home until about 2:00. On top of that - Lee left at 3:00 on Sunday to head to the cottage. A week without Lee isn't my favourite kind of week :(
• I managed to get some homework done on Sunday, but not near enough. Finally around 6:00 I realized that I absolutely needed to make some sort of food for the week, and in an hour managed to make: hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoes for eggs, ground chicken, chopped veggies for eggs and for salads, two smoothies, eggs for Monday and Tuesday, and a sandwich for dinner because nothing else sounded appetizing. I decided that sleep was necessary Sunday night, and crashed early to hopefully have some energy for Monday. 
• Monday was a long day at work, followed by even more homework. By the end of the night I was starting to feel better and more prepared for the week. As much as it sucks that Lee is away, it gives me a bit of extra focus for homework.
• Tuesday was of course Bachelorette with Ames, which was much needed after so much homework (even though we were both doing work while half watching the show). We (okay, Amy made it) made little b's clean pizza, which was fantastic! Then we had a protein milkshake, also a hit. 
• I somehow managed to get blisters on the bottom of my feet yesterday, which sucks and I'm praying go away ASAP.

So here are my take-home lessons from the last week:

• Doing school work on week nights is tough. Sundays need to be a food prep and homework day from now on. 
• Alcohol is the devil. And being away for even one night on the weekend makes things really difficult. I've come to the conclusion that I may need to skip some family camping weekends this year, for the sake of not burning out, and for staying on top of school. 
• When it comes to balance, it is important to have priorities. This blog is apparently not a huge priority when I get busy, but I missed it! I've still made it to the gym every morning, I'm still in bed before 10, earlier if I can help it, and my eats are still clean. Here's hoping that within the next week or two I have this school/work balance fully figured out! I should probably stop answering emails at 10:30pm for starters...

What get sacrificed for you when you're busy?

Confession Time

Confession time. For real. I think I need to be accountable here and not hide behind what I’m doing wrong, as much as I’d like to keep this to myself.

I’m halfway through week 3 of Body Earned right now. This is what happened this week:

Tuesday: Judging by the mirror, I felt pretty good after having a weekend that I strayed too far away from my idea of clean.

Wednesday: Stepped on the scale. 150.8. Instant meltdown and a lot of negative self-talk. Some confusion. Followed up with a day of clean eats and a good workout.

Thursday: Stepped on the scale, hoping for a fluke. 151.0. Cue panic. 

I’ll admit. I haven’t been as clean as I’d like to think the last 3 weeks. Summer is HARD. I’ve been away at two different cottages since starting the program. As much as I enjoy a cheat meal here or there, cheat weekends are not okay. I think I’ve had a mask over my eyes thinking I’m more on track than I am. Regardless, I don’t think that a 5 pound gain is realistic based on my last three weeks.

Everyone needs a push sometimes, or a slap in the face. Whatever works. So I reached out – to Amy and Colleen, and the to the fitness group with Body Earned. After some awesome advice all around, here’s what I’ve learned and what my plan is:

• DITCH THE SCALE. I need to trust the process. I’m lifting heavy weights, and my body isn’t used to this kind of training. No more weigh-ins until after week 6.  It's also perfectly possible that I will gain weight, but look better by the end of this program. Trust the mirror too!
  
•  Clean up weekends! Enough said.
•  Start tracking my food again for a bit. Make sure I’m eating what I actually think I have been. I generally aim for about 2000 calories a day. I need to stick to this.
•  Make small adjustments – use sweet potatoes instead of a grain in my eggs, and really watch carb intake at night.

I’m hoping that this small reality-check will get me back on track. Being realistic, it’s summer. I’m not expecting to see huge leaps and bounds of progress when I’m away every weekend, but it doesn’t give me an all-access pass to eat garbage. 

If this is what I looked like before Body Earned, I have NO excuses not to look better in three weeks.

What helps push you when you’re struggling and need to get back on track?

Oh Canada! And the first day of school?

I start classes today. In true Alisha fashion I arrived to campus an hour early, out of fear of not being able to find my lecture hall. Well, I found it, and now I'm sitting outside of it waiting. Very nervously. 

It doesn't help that I'm still not feeling the best after having such an awesome time in North Bay to celebrate Canada day. Lee and I got there around 10:00 on Friday night and the fun began immediately. 

I realized on Saturday morning that I did a really terrible job preparing my own food for the weekend. I brought protein muffins, protein cookies, a quinoa dish, protein powder and hummus, but this obviously wasn't going to suffice. Luckily, Lee came to the rescue as normal and dragged me into the car to go to the store. This was very successful and I came back with almond milk, chicken hot dogs, eggs to hard boil, oatmeal, blueberries, all bran and LF yogurt (which I didn't know existed until Saturday). 

This saved my mood, and my weekend. I was able to keep my eats decently clean all weekend (taking into consideration that it was a cottage weekend), which I hope helped to off-set some of the beverages that were consumed. 

For anyone that hasn't been to Northern Ontario, I wanted to take some pictures to try an capture how absolutely amazing it is there. Although no picture can really do it justice, I tried. 

A view of the lake and the dock:

The cottage lit up at night:

Sunday morning when I woke up I ate a small breakfast on the dock while reading, and went for a nice long run before everyone else was up. Perfect morning.

Lee and I on the deck :)

The most amazing cottage ever...

Overall, it was a great weekend and a nice way to spend my last few days before life gets too crazy. 
I had the hardest time waking up this morning, but luckily I was on my game and managed to pack food for the day. It will be a miracle if I can make it to the gym later today, but I'm going to try my best.